Closure
by Hatsu Yukiya
Summary: Jack didn't know who the little girl was. He just knew she was crying and it felt wrong and he wanted her to stop.


He didn't know why he hung around the settlement so much. Jack knew nobody could see him, he knew that they would just walk right through him, and he knew he could leave whenever he wanted. It may have only been a week since he woke up under the moon with no idea who he was aside from a name—_Jack Frost_—and powers he couldn't explain, but he knew that much at least.

So why did he stay? He had no clue. He felt a sort of attachment to the village, a bond that drew him closer every time he strayed too far away. Jack mainly hung out around the pond though, it was too painful watching the humans (that was another thing he knew by default: he was not human) interact with each other. Touch each other, speak to one another. It was hard for him to watch.

In short, it was impossible for Jack to explain to himself why exactly he was perched on a rooftop in the middle of the night, in the village, with a horribly familiar ache in his chest. That was the worst part about this whole thing; he knew this place was familiar. Which made no sense at all. He'd been born out of the ice in the pond and was borderline certain that he hadn't existed before then, so no place in the world should feel familiar, like he belonged there.

Jack sighed and tightened his grip on his staff, frost curling around his fingers and embedding itself into the sturdy wood. It was quiet in the village as it was fairly late at night, save for the hooting of a few owls and a light, chilly breeze rustling the leaves.

Then a different sound cut through the darkness.

Someone crying.

Jack frowned, focusing and trying to find the source of the noise. It seemed fairly close by, maybe a few houses from the left? He jumped off the roof he was perched on and wobbled a bit when the wind caught him a few feet from the snow-packed ground. He really needed to get this flying thing under control. He took a few deep, steadying breaths and focused his attention on the source of the crying. It took a few minutes, due to his clumsiness in the air, but he was able to locate the exact house the sobbing seemed to be coming from.

He didn't see her at first, the little girl. She was tiny and curled in on herself, and it was dark, so how could he have? A closer look revealed she had straight, tawny hair and a round, freckled face. When she attempted to dry her eyes, Jack could see large amber eyes bright with unshed tears.

She almost seemed to look right at him.

Jack couldn't understand the feeling he got then. It was as if he'd been punched in the stomach, the impact leaving him breathless. He stumbled back, eyes never leaving the girl, face stricken and much paler than usual.

He didn't know who the little girl was. He just knew that she was crying and it felt wrong and he wanted her to stop. Rather, he wanted to make her stop crying. He felt like it was just...something he had to do. His duty. But Jack didn't know this girl. He'd never even seen her around the village, during the few rare occasions he had enough courage to venture into it. She clearly lived in this house, but that was the only thing he knew. This girl was a stranger.

He was so immersed in his own thoughts that he didn't immediately notice that she was speaking aloud now.

"...sorry..." she was saying, "I'm sorry... it's my entire fault..."

Jack blinked. "Hey... I'm sure it's not... Well, whatever it is."

He knew she couldn't hear him. But that was the best he could do.

The girl continued to apologize, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'd take it all back if I could. You'd still be...you'd still be okay if I hadn't been so s-stupid..." She sniffled then sneezed, the cold tingling her nose. Jack self-consciously stepped back a few feet.

"I don't think whoever you're apologizing to can hear you," he muttered, feeling like an idiot. Was he this desperate for interaction with somebody, anybody? "It's really late at night, you know. But hey, if something's so bad you have to apologize for it so much then eventually they have to forgive you, huh? If you're genuinely sorry and all."

The girl continued to sob. Jack sighed and gazed up at the ever-silent moon.

_What am I doing?_

"Please come back..." she whispered, drawing her knees up to her chest. "If you do, I'll never do anything stupid again. And you can make me laugh with the antlers and yell, "Rosie, Rosie," whenever you see something interesting around. And we'll be h-happy..." Her voice trailed off with a tiny, pathetic whimper.

"Rosie?" Jack breathed. "That's your name?" A slow, small smile graced his pale features. "Alright, I can work with that."

He'd never seen a rose before, so he wasn't entirely sure how he knew what one looked like, but the end result wasn't too bad. Jack sighed as he stood, brushing off his hands. The little girl's face was hidden in her hands again, so she hadn't seen what he'd been doing.

With a little flick of Jack's wrist, a small chuck of ice flew up and smacked her forehead, effectively catching her attention. She raised her head, frowning, and began to wipe the water away when she saw it.

The perfect outline of a rose, drawn in the snow.

Rosie's eyes widened to impossible proportions and she gasped loudly, hands covering her mouth. Tears welled up in her eyes. "J...Ja..."

He blinked. "What?" That was almost...

She didn't finish, however. The tears spilled down, freezing against her cheeks. "Mama!" she called out, twisting to make her voice heard inside the house. "Mama, Papa! Wake up, wake up! You need to see this!" Rosie stood and dashed inside.

Jack smiled a little wistfully. "Hope you feel better, kiddo. See you around."

With that, he took off into the night sky, feeling a little bit better himself.

**A/N:**

**My friend KokoLolo requested something like this from me, sooo I delivered.**

**Twisted Sky wrote something like this already, and hers is much better, I think. I have this nasty habit of writing late at night when I'm sleepy and I imagine she's more experienced than I am (I'm only sixteen here XD). Her writing is amazing in general, I highly recommend it.**

**Also, I like to think of this as a little continuation of Safe and Sound. Why not?**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


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